Alps murder victim had bank account linked to Saddam

BERLIN (AFP) - Saad al-Hilli, the British-Iraqi man killed alongside his wife and mother-in-law in a mysterious shooting in the French Alps last month, had access to a bank account linked to late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the German daily Bild reported on its website on Monday.

Citing a source with German foreign intelligence service BND, Bild said that the 50-year-old victim's late father had run a Swiss bank account for Hussein's Baath party and that following the father's death last year, al-Hilli gained access to the account and its balance of some one million euros.

The source said BND had been monitoring financial transactions between Iraq and the West for decades. BND refused to comment on the matter to AFP. French prosecutors said earlier this month that a Swiss bank account monitored by al-Hilli and opened by his father had not seen any movement in a long time.

Al-Hilli and his wife and mother-in-law were found dead in their car in France's Haute Savoie region last month in an attack survived by their two young daughters. A French cyclist, an apparent innocent bystander, was also shot dead.